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(11) | EP 2 234 034 A3 |
| (12) | EUROPEAN PATENT APPLICATION |
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| (54) | Personal identification device and method |
| (57) A personal identification device prevents the reduction in the finger vein recognition
rate which otherwise occur due to erroneous insertion of a finger (1) by a user not
accustomed to operation or insertion of a false finger (1) at low cost. The device
includes an image pickup unit (2), a light source (3) for emitting light adapted to
be transmitted through the finger (1) and incident on said image pickup unit (2),
and an image operating unit (11) for generating a vein pattern from the image picked
up by said image pickup unit (2). The device may further include a display (15) for
displaying a guide (61; 64) together with the generated vein pattern to allow setting
the finger (1) to a registration position. Alternatively, the personal identification
device may be arranged to control the light power of said light source (3) based on
the brightness of the image. Finally, the processing unit (11) may be adapted to determine
whether the finger (1) is that of an organism or not by evaluating the fluctuation
of the power of light received by a light-sensitive element (50) from another light
source (51) in a fingertip guide unit (4).
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